“Utusan is following Najib’s instructions. Najib talks about national reconciliation but on the other hand he also talks about Chinese tsunami. That’s not right. We cannot play up racial sentiments. A lot Chinese supported PAS in Kelantan,” said Anwar.

“This (using the race card) is accepted and approved by the Umno leaders and its media. It accepts a cheating culture, to make fools of the people by distorting the GE outcome, wearing black is now anti-Chinese. This is what i reject. To use racial sentiments to cover up their electoral fraud.”

The Umno-controlled Utusan newspaper had this morning front-paged a headline titled “what more do you want, Chinese community”.

Indeed, in the run-up to the May 5 election, the Umno-BN media had been unleashing election analyses and reports suggesting the PR’s popularity was due to Chinese voters, but was not supported by the Malays – which is the predominant race in the country forming 55% of the 28 million population.

Najib’s days are numbered

Political analysts have long accused Najib and Umno-BN of using racial politics to scare the Malays into rejecting the Opposition.

The May 5 election saw Umno-BN’s weakest performance since it took over the government of the country from the British colonialists in 1957. In fact, many believe Najib would have lost the latest poll if not for the assistance of the EC, which refused to order recounts in dozens of close-contests.

Given that Najib’s performance was even weaker than the 2008 result achieved by his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who led BN to a 140-seat victory, there is intensifying speculation he will be replaced by his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin at the Umno party election later this year.

Hence, critics say, the rush by the Najib camp to convince their own party members that the result was not due to Najib’s leadership but to ‘unreasonable’ Chinese demands for greater political power.

“All over Malaysia, the racial walls are collapsing but Najib and Umno are re-erecting them. This is the only way they can cling to power,” Johari Abdul, the PKR MP for Sungai Petani, told Malaysia Chronicle

To think, a PR victory might have been the start of the end for this poor excuse for bird cage lining (that would surely have the SPCA filing suit over exposing innocent pets to toxic substances!)… Even as the draconian Printing Press Act that helps get other publications ISAed over TRUTHFUL reporting would be abolished!

“There are tens of Parliament and state assembly seats that were contested by Malay candidates against candidates from the Tiong Hua (Chinese), in mixed constituencies, which were won by the Malays, proving that Chinese voters were willing to reject candidates of their own race,” Tuan Ibrahim said in a statement today.

…

More Malays in parliamant due to Pakatan wins

Meanwhile, in another statement, Pahang PAS information chief Suhaimi Md Saad explained that DAP’s big win in the election did nothing to lessen the number of Malay MPs in Parliament.

In fact, Suhaimi said, the success of Pakatan’s candidates only served to increase that number by seven.

Think of that context – of who started the provocation – as you read Ibrahim Ali’s threat to give Christians a crusade if they want.

And that other word he uses, translated ‘holy war’ – the term he used is ‘perang jihad’, which is the same concept extremist Islamic terrorists use to justify their murderous attacks on innocents. The ‘perang’ (war) stuck to his remark excludes any possibility of ‘peaceful jihad’ (e.g. against poverty).

Just like all true hypocrites, Ibrahim Ali cannot see his own massive flaws, yet projects them onto his targets!

Look at how he accuses nonMuslims of becoming unafraid to stir up trouble because Muslims take their provocations peacefully and some groups support their antics.

Whereas outside of his BIZARRO WORLD, the reality is that certain Muslims like him are fearless to blatantly stir up trouble despite Christians trying to quietly practise their basic rights with a low profile, because the UMNO/BN government refuses to bring extremists like him to heel!

Go ahead, UMNO/BN. Let this fellow go without even a hint of invoking the ISA. You’ll show more clearly than ever how dedicated you really are to this ‘1 Malaysia’ concept you so bandy about.

Speaking of May 13… I have no doubt that this is all part of a continuing ploy to get the non-UMNOputras to react – no matter in how small a way – and use that as a pretext to crack down with wide-sweeping arrests. That is when the ISA will finally be invoked.

Tell us, Ibrahim Ali, just tell us… What exactly are Christians doing that makes you think we want a religious war? The specifics, not the vague generalizations and allusions to non-existant figments of your perverted imagination.

As police probe, Ibrahim Ali threatens crusade against Christians
By Clara Chooi May 15, 2011
GOMBAK, May 15 — Despite police still investigating unsubstantiated reports of a move to a Christian Malaysia, Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali threatened Christians nationwide last night that he would wage a crusade or holy war should they proceed with their agenda to usurp Islam.

The pint-sized Malay rights leader thundered to a ceramah audience of some 200 at Kampung Changkat here that he was willing to take the fall for his statement for the sake of defending the dignity of Islam.

Although he complained of fatigue from his nine ceramah stops from Kelantan to here since Friday night, the Pasir Mas MP also said his blood was boiling with rage and “hairs standing on end” following recent reports of a Christian conspiracy between religious leaders and opposition party politicians.

“In Kelantan earlier, I declared before the police, I told the security forces present that if they want to send my messages to Bukit Aman (police), please go ahead.

“Please record my words — if there is any party in Penang, especially the Christian priests who are being backed by the Penang DAP, should continue with their agenda which we already know, I would like to offer that if they want to hold a crusade, we can.

“This is in the spirit of Sultan Saladin Ayubi… if they want to fight a crusade, we can,” he charged.

Saladin was a Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and led the Muslim forces during the Crusades — a series of religiously sanctioned military campaigns taken by the Christians to recover the Holy Land from Muslims.

A Chinese primary school in Kuantan has reversed its decision to accept free copies of the Malay daily Utusan Malaysia following objections from Chinese educational groups and opposition parties.

Malaysiakini quoted the Sin Chew Daily as saying that the reversal of the decision was made by the SRJK (C) Semambu board after a meeting on the night of Wednesday 23 February 2011.

Board chairman Goh Kim Fah told the Sin Chew Daily that the school initially wanted to accept free copies of the Utusan Malaysia, sponsored by a private company, to enhance the command of Bahasa Malaysia among the pupils.

“Indeed, we were careless with this issue. We did not study the impact of the decision (to accept the sponsorship),” Goh said.

He said the pupils, unlike adults, would not be able to compare the Utusan Malaysia news reports, which critics claim are “skewed and fan racism”, with other sources.

This was among the reasons the board decided to reject the sponsorship deal.

The issue was raised after the Utusan Malaysia reported that property developer Pasdec Holdings Bhd would sponsor 4,375 copies of the daily for four primary schools and one secondary school in Pahang.

Negative impact on pupils

Among others, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has objected to the sponsorship deal, saying that the Umno-owned daily had a habit of publishing false news about him and stoking racial sentiments among the Malays.

Lim also accused the daily of constantly trying to portray the Chinese community as second-class citizens.

“If we allow our new generation to read this Umno mouthpiece, then the Chinese community would become second-class citizens in Malaysia forever. The rights of non-Malays would be deprived,” Lim said in a recent statement.

The Association of Graduates from Universities & Colleges of China, Malaysia, also pointed out that the newspaper would have a negative impact to the pupils.

“The Utusan Malaysia has been spreading racism and lies, as well as distorting facts. It is not a professional and credible newspaper, hence it is not suitable to be read by pupils whose thinking is still not mature,” the association said in calling on the school to reject the offer.

Oh come on. Why waste such a golden opportunity? The schools can just take advantage of the free bird cage lining for their competitive singing pigeons. Go Chinese frugality and entrepreneurship!

(Have to pity the pigeons though, wonder if they’ll be horrifically mutated by the FUMES OF HATRED emanating from Spew-tusan’s pages.)

Anyway, make your own conclusions about whether Spew-tusan deserves to be unfairly subjected to filthy poop poop deserves to be unfairly subjected to filthy Spew-tusan with this brief history lesson.

Like this:

I’ll flesh out my position on the matter of Interlok that I gave to Yeah.

Despite not having read the book in full, I am currently opposed to Interlok because I perceive it as being too racially sensitive. This perception has been formed by various comments on the book, especially by HartalMSM’s coverage which includes excerpts and scans of the most objectionable parts.

However, I am completely open to changing my mind. All it will take is for a supporter of the book to cite excerpts which argue the case for its suitability for racial harmony – basically, the exact opposite of what HartalMSM is doing. Yeah did indeed post one comment citing several plot instances that fit the bill.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of arguments for Interlok I have seen run along the lines of ‘It’s by a Sasterawan Negara’, ‘This and that authority has reviewed and approved it’, and ‘You are idiots who have not read the book so shut up’.

Is it unfair for laypeople to pass judgment on a book they haven’t read? Admittedly so, but let’s be practical here – they don’t owe it to anyone to be sold on an idea (e.g. that Interlok is suitable for school studies). It is the responsibility of Interlok’s supporters to convince the populace on the merits of the book.

Heck, how many PSAs and ads do we see out there imploring the populace to do things such as stop smoking, drive sober, and not play with fire? Honestly it should be common sense and their own responsibility for their own benefit, yet the govertment and NGOs have accepted that people need to be sold on even the most basic of good practices.

Similarly, we both have blogs where we continually defend the good name of our respective beliefs. Sure, we could complain that polemics are unfairly smearing our beliefs with all sorts of lies. But as a practical matter, we accept that they aren’t going to stop, and thus we actively post material as counters to their accusations.

In short, if you all are really so supportive of Interlok, isn’t it the least you could do to give a strong effort to convince the masses? That is what HartalMSM is tirelessly doing for their point of view.

I’ll be straight up on this, trying to get people on your side by telling them how stupid they must be if they don’t join you does not work.

“Have you forgotten what a typical high school is like? I bet you that in no time, students will be calling one another penipu Cina Panjang or si pariah tak guna or bodoh macam Pak Musa as insults.” - Me, in reply to a comment

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“Why is hartalmsm silent about Rama or Yew Seng? Why is hartalmsm silent about Maniam who helped Seman. Why is the part on Malini speaking up to the white tuan not highlighted? Didn’t Cing Huat tried to befriend Seman too in the end? Didn’t Rama tried to free Mak Limah? Didn’t Lazim regret supporting the Japanese? Didn’t Yew Seng let him go to avoid death in the hands of KMT? Didn’t Poh Eng saved Maniam? Kim Hock took whatever honest jobs he can to support his family, is that disgraceful?” - Yeah on why when taken as a whole, Interlok is a commendable effort at building racial unity

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Abdullah Hussain’s credo is simple: A character one like Maniam who loves the Malay is a good guy. All the Chinese are bad guys and villains except Yew Seng who, but what else, loves the Malay and in order to integrate with the Malays, is willing to turn his back on his own father (who scolds the prodigal son ‘sui tu’).

If you’re willing to follow in Yew Seng’s footsteps, and quarrel and break with your dad, and leave your family home (because you sympathize with the Malays and despise your dad’s prejudice that Malays are lazy), then you can also be a Cina Baik in the World of Interlok. So who says all the Chinese are portrayed negatively in the novel? - Second of two of hartalmsm‘s responses

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Okay, at first I was of the opinion that both sides of the Interlok debate were being stubborn.

On one side, just strike out the word pariah and use one of many synonyms instead of arguing how vital it is to use that exact word. Or use another book – there are plenty other local offerings.

On the other side, the p-word isn’t being used specifically in reference to social castes. Just accept that it’s a common usage word in today’s world.

Now my opinion has been totally changed.

Spotted at Malaysia Today, from Hartal MSM‘s coverage of the book, here’s some combined excerpts of what you find in Interlok’s unabridged version:

If you thought ‘pariah’ was the worst insult there is in the novel ‘Interlok’, you’re mistaken.

It is filled with every conceivable racial stereotype of Indians and Chinese that you can think of, applied hodge-podge but in over-abundance to the main characters.

Page 151: Kim Lock is tempted by the bad guy Paman Kok Leng to sell Cing Huat. Because Cing Huat is a boy, the father has qualms. However, he would consider the proposition if the child was a girl.

Cing Huat, now a father himself, is portrayed by Abdullah as someone who is in turn prepared to trade his daughters (for boys) without second thought.

‘Interlok’ is filled with the same characterizations of Chinese — prostitutes, womanisers, gamblers, cheats, scumbags, opium addicts, and more.

The Chinese character painted above by Interlok author Abdullah Hussain is the ‘bad’ Chinese. Abdullah’s ‘good’ Chinese is the one who sides with the Malay and turns his back on his own [Chinese] people.

As we know from previous excerpts from the novel, the Chinese have been portrayed as the scums of the earth. The Malays on the other hand have been portrayed as most kind and noble.

Page 95: Through this way, our [reserve Malay] land that is protected by law is mortgaged to a foreign race. We are unable to do anything.

Oops, actually that’s what a horrid, intolerant Chinese person thinks of Malays! So it’s actually another jab at the Chinese who are so bigoted that they stereotype Malays as lazy and financially inept.

Darn those uppity Chinese! Darn them I say! With hardcore racists like these buck toothed, slant eyed Chinks infesting the nation, how can tolerant and loving UMNO bring about 1 Malaysia harmony? /sarc

On pages 337-8, there is the scene of the bad guy Suppiah raping Malini, wife of the main Indian character Maniam. She struggles, her sari is torn. Her coli is torn. His hands grope her breasts.

“By then, Malini could not resist any longer. It has been three years since Maniam (her husband) left her. She was still young and when the secret places were aroused, she no longer possessed the willpower to fight (her body’s urges) anymore. She knew it was wrong, but how could she summon the strength to fight. Suppiah’s solid body was not only a weapon to defeat her resistance but also the tool to weaken her will.”

Malini hangs herself from a belimbing tree in shame when she becomes pregnant as a result of the rape. In the student edition, Malini dies in bed from fever.

On pages 457-8, a lecherous old communist guerrilla Teck Hock attempts to rape P0h Eng, Cing Huat’s daughter. It’s described how he pins her down and embraces her. “Teck Hock was on top of her body.” “Are you mad? screamed Poh Eng. “Gua anggap lu seperti gua punya bapa.” “I’m not your father,” he replied. “I’m just an ordinary man …”. Both rape scenes have been taken out from the student edition.

Oh, so the rape scenes are out then? Phew, now Interlok is totally suitable for secondary school boys and girls! /sarc

Scanned pages at Hartal MSM, which promises more revelations to come.

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Okay, so it’s a fictional story reflecting past times that’s trying to be gritty and realistic, sure.

But as per my usual methodology of “Why don’t you try it the other way around and see if you still find it so acceptable”, what if school students were forced to read a book where the majority of Malay characters were portrayed as lazy, ignorant, arrogant and prone to violent and hateful rhetoric? Think Ridhuan Tee would be defending the book then?

Besides, there’s already plenty of racist hatemongering in the school library’s daily subscription to Spew-tusan. Can’t students be indoctrinated in modern, up to date bile and venom instead of outdated, old-fashioned 40-year old slurs? Interlok is so passe, just slap together a compilation of hypocritical yet self-righteous diatribesthinly-veiled, vicious hate-mongeringopenly and shamelessly seditious incitements to racial strife insightfully delightful short stories from Spew-tusan’s thick cache laaaa!

Innocent young students not yet acquainted with the weekly, real-life demonstration of the worst stereotypes imaginable by certain parties (ummmmmmmm noooooooo… I won’t say which parties, sorry) would read Interlok, and come away with the ingrained perception that Chinese are generally greedy, sexist, ethicless and (hypocritically coming from this book!) prejudiced to boot.

In other words, they’ll be filled with all the worst stereotypes of Chinese people.

Heck, impressionable Chinese kids might start to think of their race and culture that way too! All the better for the stealth-protelyzing in schools to make them into a new generation of Ridhuan Tees, yes?

What are the impressions to be drawn from Abdullah’s storytelling above?

That the Chinese are a nasty, cheating race whom anyone decent would shudder to have as his neighbour.

The Chinese characters are most unsympathetic and scarcely have any redeeming graces. They have no loyalty to the country (we’ll cover the ‘unpatriotic’ aspect another time).

This book is a less-than-subtle vehicle to knock into the heads of young students (who have to study this novel for their exam) that the Chinese pendatang — referred to repeatedly in the book as “bangsa asing” — must be grateful for the opportunities given by Malaya. It parallels the ‘pariah’ theme with regard to the Indian characters.

What if they remove all the objectionable material? But then again, why even pick such an unsuitable book in the first place when there are so many other candidates? It’s akin to choosing 28 Days Later or The Exorcist and editing out the scary, gory and mature themed parts so that it becomes suitable for kindergarten cartoon time – wouldn’t picking The Care Bears Movie have been more sensible?

Federation of National Writers Association (Gapena) executive secretary Abdul Aziz Mohd Ali said the body supported the ministry’s decision to use Interlok as a textbook.

He said the only acceptable change that could be made to the novel was to add a glossary for the word “pariah” to better explain it.

Actually, the book was already highly edited as mentioned by Hartal MSM here.

So good luck changing anything that would affect the story about disgusting, reprehensible Chinamen:

“I believe we have enough time to make the detailed amendments so that there will not be any more disputes over the novel.” Muhyiddin said the decision was made after taking into account the views of various parties that Interlok was a good novel to nurture and strengthen unity among the multireligious and multicultural population in Malaysia.

“As such, the decision to retain the novel with amendments is the best solution. We will ensure that any amendments made will not affect the storyline of the novel and the noble message that the author wants to convey.”

Let’s look back at the case of the book Hikayat Munshi Abdullah, from the first Malay literary author, father and pioneer of modern Malay literature, which was once a reference book in 1958 for Bahasa Melayu.

The author in the work had described the Malays as lazy, gamblers and so on. He was also critical about the Malay rulers of that time, whom he had described as selfish and that the rulers had treated the Malay subjects dismally and that those sultans did not want the Malays to become well-educated and gain profession.

Because this book was insensitive to the Malays the book was removed as a reference book in Malaysia although it is still being used in Indonesia.

Either the people in charge of choosing suitable books did a lousy job of vetting, or (IMHO and in the opinion of Hartal MSM a much more likely scenario) they intentionally chose this piece of garbage that fits their own bigoted, narrow-minded, condescending views and were likely giggling to themselves over their insidious/seditious prank on Malaysian students.

KUALA LUMPUR — The High Court here fixed March 21 to hear the suit filed by Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad (UMMB) against Seputeh member of parliament Teresa Kok for allegedly making defamatory statements about the daily.

Deputy registrar Nor Azlin Othman fixed the date in chambers today when the case came up for mention.

In February 2009, UMMB served the writ of summon and statement of claims on Kok, whose real name is Teresa Kok Suh Sim, 47, for allegedly uttering defamatory statements about the newspaper.

In its statement of claims, UMMB said the alleged defamatory statements were made on Sept 22, 2008 when Kok claimed that the daily had distorted her statements to the national media and in her own blog about the food served to her while being detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in 2008.

The plaintiff, among other things, is seeking an order to remove defamatory articles, words, quotes or comments from the blog.

The plaintiff is also seeking an injunction to restrain Kok, whether by herself, her agents or servants from further publishing or causing to be published the defamatory words.

UMMB is seeking general, special, aggravated and punitive damages as well as costs and any reliefs deemed fit by the court. (Bernama)

Yes, the very same ISA detention that Spew-tusan got Teresa Kok thrown into!!! Can you believe the gall of these [insert the most insulting swear word from your native tongue here]?!!

Summary of Me

scottthongblog[at]yahoo[dot]com

Seeking truth, hating lies.

Oh my labels!

Free thinking, but not a Free Thinker.
A Christian and a scientist, but not a Christian Scientist.
Believing in a universal church, but not a Catholic.
Trying to be a saint in these latter days, but not a Latter Day Saint.
A witness for Jehovah, but not a Jehovah's Witness.
Sumitted to God, but not a Muslim.
Seeking knowledge, but not a Gnostic.
Rational in thinking, but not a Rationalist.
Upholding humanity, but not a Humanist.
A supporter of liberation, but not a Liberal.
A supporter of democracy, but not a Democrat.
Acknowledging the importance of social values, but not a Socialist.
Seeking and valuing truth, but not a Truther.